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Ken Cuccinelli: 'Go to jail' to fight contraception mandate

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the presumptive GOP gubernatorial nominee and a rising national figure on the right, told an Iowa-based radio show Wednesday night that opponents of a federal mandate for contraception coverage should be willing to “go to jail” to fight the law.

Cuccinelli, who also addressed the Iowa Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner last spring, told conservative radio host Steve Deace that he strongly supports the lawsuit by Hobby Lobby Stores against the Affordable Care Act’s requirements for contraception coverage.

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A devout Catholic, Cuccinelli told Deace that opponents of the mandate should put the controversial measure on trial by making the government enforce it in as heavy-handed a way as possible.

“You know, Abraham Lincoln has many good quotes, but one of them is ‘the best way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it vigorously.’ And here we’re going to have an example of what tyranny means when it’s played to its logical conclusion,” Cuccinelli said. “Because forcing business owners and businesses to do this is not consistent with our history of preserving religious liberty, one of the most important protections we have in this country.”

Cuccinelli recounted an exchange with his own bishop in which he counseled the cleric to embrace civil disobedience: “My local bishop said, ‘Well, you know I told a group I’m ready to go to jail.’ And I said, ‘Bishop, don’t take this personally: You need to go to jail.’”

“What I mean by that is, people need to see it play out all the way to its logical conclusion,” Cuccinelli said.

Though Deace’s show is based in Iowa, it is syndicated nationally and has affiliates in Virginia. Deace endorsed Newt Gingrich in the 2012 primaries.

The Cuccinelli campaign said that the interview was totally unrelated to the attorney general’s unexpected absence at Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell’s Wednesday night State of the Commonwealth address. Cuccinelli was having dinner with his daughter on the night before she returned to college, adviser Chris LaCivita said.

“I would hope no one would criticize him for that,” LaCivita said.

In an email to POLITICO, Deace praised Cuccinelli as a “strong candidate for national office in the future.”

“I know a lot of the same people supporting Rand Paul also support Ken,” said Deace, who named Paul, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio among his top candidates of interest for 2016.